A Cushion For UConn Budget Distress?

I am sympathetic to the financial woes of UConn students, faculty and President Susan Herbst in light of state budget cuts. Budget constraints can lead to weaker retention and graduation rates, fewer classes, larger class sizes and slower faculty hiring. All of these are possible and even likely outcomes.

Having raised four children through schools in California and Connecticut, we have had similar concerns in our local schools. We parents created and funded local educational foundations whose sole purpose was to fund the cost of items the school administration could not currently afford, such as athletic team equipment and uniforms, computers for the journalism classes and school newspapers, funding for salaries for art and music teachers, and so on.

My recommendation to Ms. Herbst is to create a foundation to help through these rough spots. But wait a minute ... the university already has one! It's called the UConn Foundation, and I hear it has close to a $400 million endowment.